(courtesy - www.florin.ms)
Italians, who have
emigrated elsewhere in the world, to America, to Australia,
tragically lose their language, their 'lingua madre',
their mother tongue. Because Italian is also now the 'lingua
madre' of the Mother Church, it makes sense to have the
Mass, 'la santa Messa', in Italian available on the Web
globally. It will be of use, also, to Catholic travellers in
Italy lacking Italian and wanting to be present at the Mass to
print out this text to take with them in order to follow what is
said, and to truly participate, to learn Italian in its most
sacred form and use. It was the language of St Francis 's
Canticles, of Dante Alighieri's Commedia.
It is now a sacred language, since Vatican II, and used by the
Pope and Bishops of 'la santa Chiesa', the Holy Church.
In Mediterranean languages words like 'uomo',
'figli', 'fratelli', 'monaci' mean both men
and women, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, monks and
nuns, being gender inclusive, unless carefully specified
otherwise. But you will hear the priest sometimes say 'Cari
fratelli e sorelle', or 'sorelle
e fratelli', doubly desiring to include all. Everything
is pronounced as written except that 'ci, ce' is pronounced
'ch', while 'chi, che' is pronounced 'k'; similarly g being soft
before i and e, and hard before a,o,u.
The catechesis to the Mass, for instance: [While the priest is entering
the church, we sing of our joy in participating in this feast], given
here is from the Messa
di San Procolo, the Messa dei Poveri,
the Mass
for the Poor, held in the Badia in
Florence where you can also find the Jerusalem Fraternity and
their most beautiful liturgy.
